Sunday, May 20, 2007

MATCH DAY 7: DC UNITED 2 TORONTO FC 1

- DC UNITED MAN OF THE MATCH: BALDOMERO TOLEDO- Mr. Toldeo was wearing yellow - clearly though he should have worn the DC United colours today as he was their twelfth man and assisted on the penalty goal. Aside from Brazilian Luciano Emilio clearly embellishing and diving on the penalty call, as he had on several occasions all afternoon (there appeared to be contact from Wynne in fairness), I'm more upset with Mr. Toledo allowing play to continue after Andy Welsh was fouled in the DC United end just seconds earlier, leading to the counter attack and the penalty call.- I thought Toledo was also very generous to Facundo Erpen who could have been awarded a second yellow on several occasions as well as Bobby Boswell. In contrast, he awarded marginal cards to Maurice Edu in the 25th minute, andanother to Jim Brennan late in the match that had no merit in my estimation.-Mr. Toldeo (one of the 4 or 5 full time MLS Officials) was terrible all afternoon. He called a foul on Emilio in the Toronto box late in the game, interrupting a legitimate scoring opportunity for DC - reason unknown, as Emilio did nothing other than win the ball fairly in my eyes.- DC have stolen 6 points this year on highly dubious late penalties awarded by incompetent officials. With all their trophies, DC are truly becoming the Juventus of MLS.- That said it was an opportunity lost for Toronto. Did TFC do enough to win today? I'm not so sure. On the other hand I don't think they deserved to lose either.

- TFC did look very tired after playing 3 games in the last 7 days.- The service to Danny Dichio and to all the front runners was less than adequate. This may also be a product of opposing teams figuring out how to defend against the big man.- Glad to see Alecko Eskandarian finally score one. He works hard, and deserves it in my book.- It is clear that a one legged Ronnie O'Brien is still better than most midfielders in the MLS. Will he move to the middle when Carl Robinson departs for International duty with Wales?- Andy Welsh continues to improve. Although he has become more productive, he is still guilty of being pushed off the ball much too easily. Welsh was clearly labouring towards the late stages yesterday.- Andrea Lombardo has been a spark plug. He will have a great future for club and country in my eyes.

- Jim Brennan is a rock on the back line, but I would still love to see him in the midfield.- I was so impressed (again) with the maturity displayed by Andy Boyens on the back line. I can't believe this is the same player who started the first three matches. With Boyens departing for international duty it will be interesting to see how the back line shapes up in the upcoming matches.- I don;t know what MO has available to him on that bench, though I was surprised to see he didn't add defensive help after DC scored their first goal. It was clear that DC were attacking with more purpose in the second half.- I have yet to see a star player or great individual performance at BMO field. Aside perhaps from a great display on opening day from Eddie Johnson of the Kansas City Wizards, Toronto fans have yet to see any of the big name MLS Stars do anything of significance at BMO Field. Thus far the likes of Christian Gomez of DC United and Dwayne De Rosario have been average at best here in Toronto.- Kevin Goldthwaite was unlucky to deflect the first goal in for DC United. I'm not sure how happy DC United can be with their performance today. An own goal and and yet another questionable late penalty call is nothing to get too excited about in my opinion.- The all important "Contract Guarantee deadline" is fast approaching. It will be interesting to see what moves, if any, Toronto FC will make in the next few weeks.

- With the Carlsberg Beer Tent taking a new look yesterday at the north end of the stadium, fans without tickets gathered on the steps of the adjacent building to watch the match. Kind of neat to see that level of excitement for soccer again.- It wasn't as noisy at BMO today. Not sure what to attribute this to.- On to the friendly with Benfica on Wednesday night. Let's hope Toronto takes the match seriously because an ugly loss to a European side will hurt TFC's credibility in this market.

I hope you are not in the supporter's south end hearing complaints about standing for a game.Perhaps next year a questionaire should go out with the supporter's season tickets - if you care, you should be there - perhaps it is folks discovering that the BMO experience is not their cup of tea. I call them tourists, not fans.

I agree wholeheartedly with stillkicking. The supporters section has some relatively obvious rules, one of em being STAND TO SUPPORT. If you dont like it sit down but dont expect everyone else to join you.

We talk about several players are performing well for TFC. In my mind, I am wondering how Toronto is dealing with Abbe Ibrahim's work permit. I mean this is being inefficient. TFC can't even use him in Canada. While he is seating on the bench with the eager to play in home matches. With our stars will depart for international duties, we will surely need players that will step up for us and I can see Abbe will perform well. Any thoughts on that my fellas?

(1) Not sure what type of security measures are in place around the fence to ensure people don't just jump over. I would assume someone is watching during game days.

(2) Though I'm not in the supporters section, I am close enough. My section has become an all standing section from kickoff against KC. The ability to stand for the entire match without bothering anyone was my top priority when I purchased my seats last year.

(3) It is imperative that TFC declare more sections of BMO as supporters/standing sections in order to limit confusion next year. I think some people may have thought they had a great deal purchasing in the supporters sections, or near the corners, without a true understanding of what type of fans would be located in those sections. They have discovered the reality of owning seats in various sections = you stand up for the full two hours.

(4) Ibrahim is now available for selection as he was granted his immigration clearance. He was apparently not in game shape a couple of weeks ago and is working towards catching up with the rest of the team. Can he offer more than Buddle and Lombardo is the big question?